Sportsnet Cancels UFC Central

“R.I.P. UFC Central – April 20, 2009 – October 01, 2014”, says ‘Showdown’ Joe Ferraro’s Facebook. “After being on the air for over 5 1/2 years, my pride and joy, “UFC Central”, is no more.”

According to UFC Central’s host, Joe Ferraro, the show aired its final episode last week.

Joe Ferraro and the crew gave fantastic coverage of Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC to Canadians. The groundbreaking show’s run lasted five and a half years and 275 episodes.

According to Ferraro, “The removal of “UFC Central” was a business decision made by the network last month, one I fully understand, and one I would have made myself, if I was in a position to make such a call.”

Joe Ferraro will continue with his UFC Central Radio program on Sportsnet 590: The Fan and MMA enthusiasts can continue to read his written contribution to Sportsnet.ca.

Let’s hope we see Joe on the televisions once again somewhere in the near future!

19 Responses to “
Sportsnet Cancels UFC Central ”

MMA and more specifically, the UFC, have no big names anymore. People want drama and excitement. They want the GSP type fights, they want the heavyweights like Brock and Mir. Nobody cares about all these other scrubs they have fighting. The UFC is boring now. It’s run its course. 5-10 years ago was the UFC in its prime. Those days are over.

Calling these guys scrubs is a huge insult to the fighters. The organization has expanded, and increased their rosters in all weight classes, while bringing in new weight classes, and female competitors. Just because you don’t know their names does not make them scrubs. These guys work their asses off to get where they are. The organization has changed, however there are a lot more competitive fights now. Long gone are the days of having one fighter being so dominant over all his opponents. Fighters are more and more skilled, and it is rare to see completely lop-sided matches.

I like joe, very knowledgable and not as annoying as about 90% of other mma personalities, you could also tell that the fighters loved doing interviews with him. I’m sure it was due the deal between the NHL and Rogers, and with the big void on TSN now dont be surprised if you see him on a different channel

ok, I get it. They work ‘their asses off’. Who cares if they’re great fighters and are talented athletes?Nobody does. The casual fan doesn’t buy a PPV because the fighters are great athletes. People buy them because there’s household names with a lot of hype going into the fight. UFC central got pulled because of ratings. And not because the show was crap, but because the sport is just boring now to the guy who casually watches the fights. At the end of the day, it comes down to ratings ad money. The Johnny come latelys don’t care about the fighters. They want the Chuck Liddells and Brock Lesnars. Drama sells. Face it, MMA is way past its prime.

I agree Jester fully casual fans dont care and with GSP Sonnen and lesner gone it does leave a big hole, but the hole isnt as big as your making it out to be.
Connor Mcgregor is filling that gap very quickly Ronda is a draw too,and so is Jones his true self being caught in that interview with cormier when he thought they were off the air will only help make him get richer with ppv.

Wait till the other shoe falls off when Sportsnet does not renew the UFC deal. The deal they are under now ends Dec 31 and unless TSN ponies up we may be left with no UFC content in Canada. Perhaps The Fight Network and a combination of TSN work something out but right now who knows..

I never understood why the show was changed from MMA Connected to UFC Connected, I still believe MMA is bigger than the UFC and not the other way around or something to that effect! Wasn’t there also some rumblings about contract renewals not going well between Rogers and the UFC, maybe this (as well advertising & ratings) has to do with canceling the show?

So why is Dana and Lorenzo in Montreal talking to GSP for? Just to say hi and have lunch? Get real. The UFC has no ‘stars’ anymore to sell big PPV’s. Nobody gives a shit about Jake Shields or Ben Henderson. The UFC needs drama and they know it. People ain’t gonna pay 60 bucks for boring tv. MMA is dead until a new Chael Sonnen or Brock Lesnar comes along.

3500 in attendence for last WSOF because half of those numbers came to see the ryan ford show, what happens at next event when ryan is a no show cause hes got his arm in a sling? I guarantee those numbers will drop to 1500-2000 atendees.

Having watched the MMA and the UFC since about ’95, it’s fair to say the sport is in significant lull. To me, it’s quite near-sighted for Sportsnet to jump ship on this product so quickly. The sport was at its best when Spike had the rights. Sportsnet came along and gave Fight Nights where on several occasions, the MAIN events were cut off before the final bell went! I went back to Spike while double coverage was ongoing. But then Sportsnet went gang-busters, and along with Zuffa, over-exposed this sport acting as if there was endless well of intrigue. Well there isn’t. Not every fighter and event is the “greatest of all time” and a “must see.” Even boxing with its longstanding tradition couldn’t maintain interest like this. I don’t think this sport is done . . . But who knows how long this cooling-off will last. Connor McGregor is a name people are excited about. An American or two like this and another similar to GSP in Canada and interest could reignite. Unfortunately I don’t think this will be for awhile, and until then, it’ll be hard to argue the best years aren’t behind us.

Sportsnet is definitely not renewing their deal with the UFC…As you can see since this is the last 3 events where Sportsnet is not covering a UFC event. This time there is not even hockey on 360 which is the channel they normally use to broadcast UFC events. I am told that a possible deal between The Fight Channel (FC would pick up TUF and show stuff like UFC Wired and other programming) and TSN would pick up the option to show the PPV prelims and the Fox Fight Nights. TSN may use the FC staff to cover the UFC while taking care of the production side of things. If this is indeed the deal that will be announced I wonder what stipulations the UFC will make to TFC about covering other MMA…